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Another Californian here - Oakland. Gotta agree with your assessment of the number of homeless cats. I haven't spent much time in central California but it's been the same everywhere I've been in the state. Up in this tiny town in Northern California where I go on vacation I pulled into a gas station to find a colony feeding there. But I was also amazed to see eartips in several of the cats - the idea of TNR even reached there! And here in Oakland, even with very active rescue going on and lots of education about TNR, I did fix 30+ cats in my workplace neighborhood when I first arrived. We have neighborhoods like that all over the place. We do have resources here in the Bay Area (as you know fromliving in SF) but not because they just appeared - people fought hard to insist on those resources and we're still trying hard to obtain vet care at a price that is possible for us to help the number of cats we do. Sounds like its time for Central California rescuers to get together and fight

You know, your current kitty sounds so much like my Shakespeare did a year and a half ago. The mouth sores and the bad teeth gave her trouble eating. She was ravenous but would work on a single bowl for hours and couldn't compete with the other cats. Her front legs and chest were covered in blood tinged saliva at all times. She developed diarrhea the consistency of coffee. She was walking bones and had some symptoms of URI. She also had skin issues - I now know she is allergic to fleas and also sensitive to foods, and I think that her trying to wash herself with her infected mouth also had something to do with it. She smelled terrible. Yes, your story about the cage clean-up sounds just like Shakespeare back in the day.

Did you get your kitty tested for Bartonella? My vet "doesn't believe in it" so wouldn't test my girl but I treated her for it anyway, and it really helped immensely.

The first thing I did was try to get her in shape for dental anesthesia. That meant helping her gain some weight (though the bulk of that would happen after her mouth was cleared). The first dental cleaning only helped her out for about 2 weeks, then the inflammation returned. At that point I decided on a full extraction - the only way to get her body to stop reacting to her teeth was to get rid of them (she kept her fangs to hold the shape of her face). The results were dramatic. She has ballooned up past 12 pounds - really I should be watching her weight a bit but I am just so delighted to see this previously hideous cat looking fat and happy that I just keep letting her eat to her heart's content The only place she has inflammation in her mouth anymore is on her gums around her 4 canine teeth. It's not enough to cause problems yet but it's possible they'll eventually have to go too. By the way, once the mouth was fixed, the URI stuff disappeared. I think the inflammation was just going up into her nasal cavities and it was based on the mouth.

I have heard about cats who do the extractions and have a hard time recovering, just like your FIV guy. I'm not sure why that sometimes happens and sometimes it turns out like Shakey, to be a miracle fix.

Shakey continued with the diarrhea and skin issues until I put her on a long round of Zithromax - treatment of choice for Bartonella. She also had canned pumpkin in her food for a long time to help with the stool - it still seemed she wasn't digesting a lot (poop smelled like food) but the pumpkin did help the stool to be solid, which cut down on the mess, which cut down on her over-grooming, etc. Things got so much better. She is carefully kept on Advantage so that a flea can never bite her. She eats Avoderm only, which seems to be the ticket - and not as expensive as those prescription diets that never worked for her anyway.

My cat is pretty and happy and sweet smelling now She also doesn't act so much like a psycho when you try to touch her, since her pain is gone. Her story is in the rescue section.

Did you do a complete blood panel? I'd do that first (Shakey's was fine, although as they were drawing her blood they warned me she looked to be in late renal failure and should be euthanized - that's how bad she looked). Then, if your vet will do it, a bartonella test. Many cats do have bartonella, and it doesn't usually cause problems - but there is this set of symptoms associated with it which are the ones that Shakey had and perhaps your kitty? Definitely check with your vet but if the Clavamox and Baytril haven't cleared up his URI and the diarrhea is such a problem, I would expect that the vet would say to quit them... antiobiotics are notorious for causing diarrhea and if they're not working anyway... Then I'd add canned pumpkin to the diet - it can be a stool miracle!

Giardia - it's a pain in the neck but usually does get cleared on a long round of Flagyl - but it is very re-infectious and difficult to get out of the environment - we ordered a special cleaning agent when we had a bad round of it through our foster homes a few years ago. But also, confirm with the vet that he actually had a positive giardia test. It may have come up negative but they assumed her had it anyway (it can be tricky to find). It's a reasonable assumption to make, but not ALWAYS correct. And Flagyl is a hard drug on the stomach (often causes nausea in people) so again, IF he doesn't need it you'd do well to get him off of it.